FULLERTON — The Temecula Great Oak girls soccer team’s rally fell short against Fullerton Sunny Hills on Tuesday afternoon, as the Wolfpack fell 2-1 in the Division 2 semifinals match.

Great Oak (15-6-3), which had never advanced past the first round of the playoffs prior to this season, struggled through the majority of the first half, as the top-seeded Lancers forced the Wolfpack to play defense in the first forty minutes.

“We didn’t want the ball early in the game,” Great Oak head coach Alicia Brennan said. “They forced us into a tough spot early on and we had a tough time controlling the game.”

Sunny Hills (31-1) got on the board early when Maribell Morales snuck a shot past Great Oak keeper Michelle Craft in the first five minutes of play.

The Wolfpack had an opportunity to tie the game just a few minutes later on a corner kick, but a header from Gabi Forss sailed over the net.

“The opportunities were there,” Brennan said. “It was just that sort of half for us. Things were not going our way.”

Craft, who helped her team to 14 shutouts this season, was shaken up a second time when Megan Hodgson fought through a cluster of Great Oak defenders to put the Lancers up 2-0.

“We didn’t come out as strong as we needed to,” Craft said. “You could see it from everyone — our bench, our sideline, their bench, their sideline. We couldn’t match their intensity.”

But Brennan knew her squad could play better than they had.

“We knew we needed to win the ball in the second half,” she said. “We realized what we were going to be facing and we had to leave it all out on the field.”

With its sideline cheering them on, Great Oak finally got on the board in the middle of the second half when Mikayla Brillon found herself alone on the right side of the net and powered in a shot from 30 yards out.

Steph Malherbe had an opportunity to tie the game in stoppage time when she found herself right in front of Sunny Hills’ keeper, but she hit her shot over the goal from 5 yards out.

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